This is the story of our rustic cow gate. Not because we have a cow to keep in, or because we want a gate. We have acquired several cows that we would like to keep out.
There is a general free range approach to our neighbours cows. Although it is charming to see him walking his cows and caring for these lovely creatures, we don’t want to see them in the garden munching our veg plants and flowers.
I know you’re thinking, just ask him politely in your best broken French if he could keep a close eye on his heard. It’s a reasonable thought but, our lovely neighbour Michelle is well in to his late 80’s and we don’t think he’d appreciate the new English neighbours offering Bovine advice.
We have utilised the farmers friend (bailor twine) for several months but the cows have now learned to limbo into our garden as they love it so much.
Time to add a gate with the bits of wood we can find in the woodland and on the massive pile that we have yet to remove. (Another job to add to the list).
Dear Nicola and Simon,
First let me introduce myself. I’m Johan Evers (54) and together with my wife Annemieke (53) we’re about to become your neighbours if all works out as planned. Well, not really next door, but along the road. We’re about to sign the contract for number 5, the house opposite the Yoga studio. End of next week we’ll be visiting Le Chassaing again, so we might run into each other. You can’t miss us, I’m 2 meters tall and Annemieke is not much smaller.
What we would like to know, and perhaps you may elaborate on this in a blog post too, is what the internet is like in “rural France”. We’ve experienced internet connections in the Creuse as bad as 1 mbps and below. Even Google times-out on such slow links. But since you both seem to be pretty internet dependant, we wonder how fast your internet connection in Le Chassaing is and if you somehow had to arrange special access in order to obtain a workable connection.
Looking forward to hearing from you, and seeing you in person.
Best regards from The Netherlands,
Johan & Annemieke
Hi Johan and Annemieke,
Wow that’s fantastic that you found us via the blog. Thank you for reading our posts.
You have the best view we often walk around the ‘chemin’ and take in the view of the mountains.
Internet is better than expected we get 4G via mobile and use SFR.
Yes our business is very much online and this was an important part of our location decision.
You do need to purchase a good quality router and external arial to receive acceptable speeds (currently 40mbps download and 16mbps upload) We will write a blog next week about our experience and recommendations for services and equipment.
We don’t have a landline yet but fibre optic is on its way very soon. We will ensure that we connect up. We have a back up satellite dish plan (but have not needed it).
The neighbours are all very friendly and there are lots of community events to get involved in. It seems like a sleepy village until the Maire opens a bottle of wine then everyone appears!
There are several couples and families from the Netherlands close to Chard. A good mix of French, Dutch and English making a wonderful community.
Feel free to get in touch by email notesfromlechassaing@gmail.com
Looking forward to meeting you too.
Best wishes from Nicola & Simon
Hi Nicola & Simon,
Thanks for your fast and kind reply. Yes, your blog can be found easily. We had no idea that there would be any bloggers in sleepy Le Chassaing, so it was a very pleasant surprise indeed.
We also fell for the views from our future house. We already spotted the snow-covered tops of the Puy-de-Dôme while standing on the porch. We hope all house-buying-formalities will go as planned, so that we can move house well before winter kicks in. We still have the waiting for SAFER to suffer…
We’re looking forward to your blog post next week on internet-connectivity. By the way, the rumours about fibre optic creeping up on rural France already reached us. But we have no clue yet when Le Chassaing is scheduled to be hooked-up to glass. The sooner, the better. But some experimenting with routers, antenna’s and other technical equipment also has its charm, as I am a computer nerd as well as a fully licensed amateur radio enthusiast and electronics engineer.
Looking forward to meeting you in person soon.
Best regards, Johan & Annemieke.
Hiya Johan & Annemieke,
Lovely to meet you in person.
I hope that the signing for Number 5 Le Chassaing went well?
All is peaceful here. Our barn roof renovation is progressing very slowly.
Nicola & Simon
Hi Nicola & Simon,
I was indeed lovely to meet you both in person.
The signing of the “Compromis de Vente” went very well indeed. We met the sellers in person for the first time that day. And at this moment we’re in the two months waiting for any farmers who might want to make use of their legal right of first purchase. We’ve got 6 of the 9 weeks waiting behind us now without anybody contacting the notary, so that looks very promising indeed. Only 3 weeks of nerve wracking waiting to go. So we guess we can start preparing for signing the “Acte de Vente” on the 1st of September. If all goes as planned, and Dutch, Belgian and French borders stay open, we’ll get the keys that same day and we’ll occupy the house as the new owners that same afternoon. Exiting times…!!!
Good to hear that Le Chassaing is still as peaceful as we remember it. Looking forward to seeing your barn roof renovation and other renovation projects with our own eyes soon.
Best regards, Annemieke & Johan.
Not long to go!
Bon Chance x